Abandoned minors rescued in house at Lake View estate, Nakuru

Langa Langa Assistant Chief George Ng'ang'a rescue children in a house they had been abandoned by their mother at Lake View estate APRIL 10, 2017. PHOTO BY MERCY KAHENDA

The Children's Department has taken in two minors said to have been abandoned by their mother.

The boys, aged 11 months and two years, were left in a house in Lake View estate.

Neighbours said the 32-year-old woman has been leaving the children by themselves while she spends all her time drinking.

Langa Langa Assistant Chief George Ng'ang'a said locals informed members of the Nyumba Kumi initiative when they noticed the children had been abandoned

Mr Ng'ang'a said when they arrived at the house, they found the children living in deplorable conditions.

They took them to Bondeni Police Station before they were handed to the Children's Department, which will in turn place them in a children's home.

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Meanwhile, the police are looking for their mother who they said would be charged with negligence.

Residents said they had warned the woman about neglecting her children but she always told them off.

The administrator said the children had been exposed to cold weather as the landlord had removed the door to their house due to non-payment of rent.

Their father's whereabouts are unknown.

When The Standard arrived at the house, the children were shivering, weak and hungry. They also looked sick and were coughing and sneezing uncontrollably.

"Locals told us the children had been left alone and that they were living in poor conditions and had no food. We came immediately and took them to the police station," Ng'ang'a said yesterday.

"Most of the time, the woman leaves the children very early in the morning or even at night to go and drink. She does not provide for them. We have tried to talk to her to no avail," said Zipporah Warigia, a neighbour.

She said they sometimes brought the children porridge as their mother went drinking in Flamingo and Kivumbini estates and returned to find them asleep.

Grace Maina, another neighbour, said the last time she talked to the children's mother, she said it was in the drinking dens that she met well wishers who helped her and she therefore couldn't stop going to drink.

Ng'ang'a said cases of child neglect in the area were on the rise, with at least 10 reported monthly.

The police are looking for the woman who was said to have disappeared as soon as she learnt that her children had been taken away.